Seif El Beheary

I think meat is just a way of life in that country, changing that would be impossible. Animal agriculture effects on the environment

Meat. Something we eat every day, weather your know it or not. One thing you probably don't know is that  according to the ipcc,  all the cars, planes, boats, etc are not as bad as all the animal agriculture in the world almost 3 times over. Today I am here to show you the problems with animal agriculture today and how to fix it. In the world of animal acculturate, meat is a pressing issue, due to methane emissions affecting use on a global scale. To fix this issue I believe a full meat blackout is in order and if not, we will surely drown in our own mistakes. 

Animals directly cause global warming in one way. Waste. It is commonly known that when an animal secretes it releases methane. This methane is a form of greenhouse gas and according to princeton university is a staggering 20, 25, and even 30 times worse than carbon. Methane also according to ipcc and “the inconvenient truth” can stay in the atmosphere for 10 to 15 years and contributed to 5.1 percent of all global emissions. While methane is a very potent nitric oxide is worse.

 According to the ipcc just 0.1 percent of the nitrous oxide in our atmosphere is potent enough to cover more than 30 percent of all the carbon in our atmosphere. Nitrous oxide is about 300 times worse than carbon and according to the EPA can stay in your atmosphere for 114 years. Animals produce both of these also through exicreations. One argument I found convincing was that the earth was not heating because of cows, why would it now? 

According to nutritionist julian waiters 100 hundred years ago there was an average of about 650,000 dairy cows. In the curent america there is more than 5 million cows and according to the book “ABC’s of awareness” one cow can produce a staggering 120 kg a year. That means there are 600,000,000 kg of methane realest in the atmosphere by just dairy cows alone. According to animal agriculture scientist L.E. Chase the amount of N2O (Nitrous oxide) that is produced by a cows urine alone is about 8000 kilograms, which if translated back into carbon by effectiveness is roughly 2.4 million kilograms of carbon.

The chart above is a representation of the worlds emissions and were they come from. Animal agriculture is on this chart but the overwhelming presence of carbon and low picture quality it is hard to see. The picture below is the methane/ N2O and emissions in agriculture.

As you can see livestock and manure is looks a miniscule to the mass bulk of carbon but now look at this chart that show the effectiveness of that deadly carbon and how it compares to the even more deadly methane and N2O.

There are no tricks skemes, these are all charts that accurately represent the world's green hou . The problem with these issues is that they have been so polarised as vegetarians and climate change has slowly been turned from “ This is an issue, we need to fix this” to “ Vegetarian, thats funny, you do realize that you live in texas right?” That last quote was from a 50 year old doctor! That just proves how communicating the issue and why you should go vegetariane is just as or even more important than just following the the idea in small groups. ( I am a vegetarian and that sentence doesn't mean you should be hypocritical.) I like to compare this issue with the book “Silent spring”. I loved this book and it was the famous book single handedly communicate the issue of DDT poisoning to the world and the people to the people of the world at that time it was made, ending DDT spraying. I don't believe this issue will be solved with a one hit wonder, but multiple points made to the world and lifestyle changes endorsed by the media could have an adverse effect on global warming and would put us in the write track or fix the problem altogether. Some roadblocks people are hitting is religion. 

I am Muslim and one problem I will face this year is Ramadan. For those who are new to this term, ramadan is a 30 day fasting holiday were you may not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset. Usually at sunset we feast pounds of assorted meats, cheeses and, other assorted pastries and such to build our calorie intake for the day. Being vegetarian, that takes a big chunk out of my meal calories and could be bad for my health if I don't get the proper nutrients I need. This at first was a big concern but turns out that there are several diets that are meat free and are of ramadan standers. This diet mostly based on broth, humus, bread, etc and was developed by chefs, nutritionist, etc. 

Besides the air quality based issue of the environment, there is also the ground based issue of the environment. According to yale university 80% of all deforestation in the amazon is due to animal agriculture and land space for growing and raising cattle in factory farms, grass fed farms, etc. The amount of biodiversity being lost a day just due to animal agriculture is according to author leslie taylor of “Herbal secrets of the rainforest” is 40,000 species lost a year just in animal agriculture alone, just in the amazon rainforest. 

Animal agriculture also infect crops for people in need of food. According to the FDA one of the lead hypothesis for the roman lettuce ecolide outbreak was due to that the lettuce company lived within close quarters of a large cow farm meaning the run of manure contaminated the crop. The problem with some of the animals is there keeped in such small environments that the only way for proper sewage disposal is concrete grounds letting the waste slide away. I personally believe that this is ridiculous that we need to cut down on meat production for our own good.

One idea that has been floating around in the world of animal agriculture is farming in a way to mimic nature. What this way of farming is all about, is grass fed in a way of moving the animal as you go, creating a better environment because the plants have time to grow back with the new deposited fertilizer. This idea was endorsed because methane absorbing plants could be grown there and the methane in the feces was being seduced and wouldn't build up and not grow anything. This idea was looked at for a short period of time as a cheat, to get out of not eating meat, but as it was looked into, 1 fatal flaw was found. Land. According to the USDA, the average american eats 222.2 pounds of meat a year and the average space for 1 cow and calf is according to the USDA is 15 acres for grass fed. The average amount of meat you get from one cow is about 290 pounds. In other words we need roughly 4.9 billion acres of land when the U.S. only owns 2.27 billion acores. That means to supply the U.S meat need alone we would need apolt of land about the size of all U.S owned land times 2 and a ½ . That also accounts for terraforming all the cities and mountains for meat production.( The land includes Alaska and Hawaii as well). 

Earlier I talked about lost animal diversity do to deforestation from cows. This also occurs when certain breeds of cow or chicken are artificially selected in selective breeding. According to the ASPCA and the USDA chicken sizes seins the 1900s to the 2000s have changed from 2.5 pounds to a whopping 5.8 pounds. These two organisations have written about chickens so big that there legs are almost useless and end up limping around with their body weight slowly bearingfg down on them. The conditions of animals are also herendes with minimal space and inhuman caring and killing technique

These chickens are shackled and held upside down to be gassed, only to die at the hands of an electrified bath, killing them to be de-feathered and made for consumption of young children all across america. This killing method is used with calf, sheep, and swine.  

Another issue beside the inhuman treatment is the complete and utter nonsense of cows supposingly making us food. According to the cornell university the grain alone that we use for cows in the US is enough to feed 800,000,000 people but instead we get ⅙ of that when we feed it to cows. ( Its a 1 pound of meat to 6 pounds of feed ratio.) Cows also use according to Nebraska university a staggering 3-30 gallons of water in a single day and 1 cow takes about anywhere below 36 months before slaughter. This wasn't including the other types of cow feed, just wheat

Another common perception of vegetarianism is that due to the lack of protein you would become weak but this vision is simple idiotic. According to harvard university a 5 ounce cut of steak has 300 calories, 44 grams of protein, 120 milligrams of cholesterol, and 12 grams of mostly saturated fats. Now a cup of pinto beans has 15 grams of protein, 1 gram of fat that is polyunsaturated and instead of cholesterol in meat these beans have, 26 grams of complex carbohydrates, and 15 grams of dietary fiber. Beans also have a higher potassium count than steak and a lower sodium count than steak and identical iron content. Considering the huge price gap with a 5 ounce steak being around 9 to 12 dollars and 1 cup of pinto beans is a mesly 2 to 3 dollars the choice is obvious. Protein works to help your body build muscle when the muscles are used and worn but if you are not active that protein, fat, and cholesterol isn't used in turn makes you gain weight when in beans there miniscule fat and no cholesterol doesn't build up as much. According to dietitian Eliza Zied, author of "Nutrition at Your Fingertips” most vegetarian diets give you more energy, the reason for this is because a well balanced vegetarian diet is usually is more filling with less calories unlike meat that is high in calories and not as filling.

Another misperception that has skyrocketed in recent years is that vegetarian food is bland and tasteless. I have been cooking for 10 years and never in my life have I tasted anything more bland and hored that use over cooked meat. The sensation of chewing on raw tasteless piece of protein breaking apart in a chewy nauseating mass of umami burnt bitterness is way worse than any crisp, and delicious salad. A lot of the great vegetarian recipes are out there and are absolutely stunning like flatbread with a shallot Greek yogurt dip or cauliflower steaks with a 

Red wine vinegar reduction and even vegetable broth. There are thousands of recipes out there that could easily rival any chunk of meat. 

The last thing I would like to talk about before I enter my conclusion is what you can do. From being vegetarian to just lowering meat consumption, there are hundreds, if not thousands of ways you can help end the destructive power of animal agriculture and how it controls us today. My school (St Catherine's Montessori) has its own garden and even a separate property, made to help introduce children like ourselves to healthier eating habits with things like spinach, carrots, radishes, and more. We sell these local produce in away so it can be shared with the world and our school to help encourage healthy eating and to earn a profit. It is important to buy local and in season food to limit carbon emissions by importation and to try to stay away from cow based farming to show that there's an issue and inform the public, this message must be heard.

 To conclude my paper on all the reasons why eating meat is the start of many bad things to come I would like to say thank you to those who appreciate the the art of raising cattle but understand that under no circumstances will it make sense to eat. The waste of food, the cruelty, the methan , the lost biodiversity, the lost species, the health issues, the land waste, the misconceptions, the price, the N2O, the disease,  some of many just might give you an idea of the amount of ways you can go. You could drown, you could contract deadly diseases, you could die of air qualite, you could starve, you could dehydrate, you could get diabetes, you could get heat stroke, you could die of in all these ways just from a silly carving. If I am to perish and one day I shall, I shall go out not as a small amber never too light a fire but a raging pulsating blaze, burning through the injustices of life, exposing the wrong doings and ties of the world that keep us small embers. To you I say ignite and burn your own path and be known in your actions not your ashes.